Hello gello

Gelli plate printing is an easy and fun way of making simple prints or building up layers as in the example above. They are ideal for using with natural material such as the leaves from your garden.

The original plates were made using gelatin poured into a shallow tray, their firm but yielding surface meant they would pick up up the tiniest detail pressed into it. Unfortunately, although you could extend their life by keeping them in a fridge, eventually they would break down and even go mouldy.

Luckily a synthetic version was created which are reasonably priced and come in a range of shapes and sizes. They are fairly robust but you can’t use any sharp implements on them as this can break the surface.

They are easy to clean, either with a bit of oil or rubbed lightly under a tap. I don’t bother cleaning between pulling prints as I rather like the grungy look you get when there’s some residue from the last print.

There are many ways you can use your plate. I particularly enjoy making transfers from photographs and magazine pages. The work above has a combination of paint layers, transfers, some stencils used with the gel plate, some thermofax prints and some digital art printed onto tissue paper then glued on.

But you can get really striking results just printing from leaves. I have found it’s not quite so successful with flowers. You can get some interesting silhouettes with the outline of some flowers but you miss out on any textural detail. Petals that have obvious veins are better - cosmos and geranium work quite well - so it’s always worth experimenting.

You Will Need

Leaves - either foraged or from your garden
Gel plate
A rubber roller (also known as a brayer)
Acrylic paints
Paper to print on - something smooth works well such as copy paper, cartridge or tissue paper
Scrap paper for rolling excess paint onto
Space to lay out your prints
Optional hairdryer or heat tool to speed drying.

Watch my YouTube video for a demonstration